Episode Summary

When a number of ecstasy overdoses in Manhattan show a pattern, the team travels to the city for the profile. Hotchner is surprised, however, when the investigation reveals his long estranged brother is somehow involved.

Great penultimate episode!

This review is solely for the first hour of the finale, 'Brothers Hotchner'. I thought this episode was great and it was really nice seeing a character we hadn't seen for about seven years coming back on the show. The Case was extremely interesting and I really loved it.

The episode also ends in stunning fashion, leading into the second hour. I will review that one separately, shortly. However, in terms of this first hour, it was a stunning case taht was really interesting to follow! A memorable one for sure!moreless

Brilliant finale. Unexplained replicator's mind.

I loved the double episode finale! First part: clever plot, they got me confused with the double MO (deadly drugs in extasy and wine), great! I was delighted to watch both Hotchners together, I hope the events would make Sean more responsible. Ha ha, Reid taking down the unsub with the suitcase, that's the spirit! Second part was even better: first of all, I was impressed by the acting of Joe Mantegna throughout the whole episode: he brilliantly showed all range of emotions, I loved him being drugged, scared for Strauss, devastated by her death, revengeful in the scene with the replicator, I totally adored his toast - how does he do it, that nothing going out of his mouth sounds cheesy, everything is very effortless, real and touching. Second, congratulations to the actress who played Strauss and the director: they made me cry for her and mourn her death eventhough I did not like her character at all. They managed to make her very human, last words about her children, touching and again - not cheesy at all! Furthermore, I loved the action of the episode - the chopper scene was excellent, and the trap in the end! The riddle with the zugzwang - "maybe the best move is to not move at all".. Good cliffhanger - did the replicator survive? My only complaint is about the replicator himself and the writing around him. As the writers had been preparing for so long the big entrance of some super dangerous villain, he dissapointed me, really (not the actor, but the writing). I think they did not use him that well: he did such brilliant actions to hack into the Garcia system, he is a great biochemist and engineer, almost perfect super-villain, but what i was missing is the reasoning for all he had been doing the whole season - why he was so exhaustively mimicing the crimes? His stressor didn't seem enough. And why to follow Reid during his phone booth journeys - for what? Was he just bored or couldn't he think of anything more sensible than to bother with some minor team member of Blake? Why did he copy all those crimes? Where his sadistic behavior stemms from? He murdered so many people in various gruesome ways. So much effort for nothing (he just confused the team, no especially big deal). If the primar targets were Blake and Strauss, why to toy with the rest of the team (Blake was new, so she did not care for them that much yet, Strauss was their evil boss)? He could have scared those women in more efficient way, if he is such a genious, psychologist etc. Why didnt he torture Blake when he had her "on the table"? Or why didn't he torture her psychologically, for ex. by targeting her husband? The replicator and the motives behind his behaviour really didn't make sense to me. My impression is that the writers didn't decide from the very beginning about the story of the replicator, they started to think about the plot too late, and they didn't know what to do with it, so it all worked out only very approximately and seemed very rushed. But other than that, brilliant finale!moreless

Liked it (same review as posted at the final episode)

!!!!!!!! Same review as I posted at the season finale!!!!!!!! So some answers to questions/ statements made in reviews of both episodes!!!!!!!!

I liked the episode, but not loved it. I can't explain it but I liked the Fisher King more and he wasn't as smart as this unsub.

As far as Strauss goes, I think they started to "like" her from the time she stopped drinking and was with Rossi. Then Blake, I don't especially like her but don't hate her either. And don't blame her, the writers give her this character. Also it was Paget Brewsters choice to leave, they didn't write her off. And I have to say, people always hate the new one if an old loved one leaves. If you ask people now Prentiss was great, but when she replaced Elle most of you hated that. Same with Gideon and Rossi, maybe even more because Gideon was a great character. So lets give her a chance. As far as the prediction, it could be true. But I very much doubt this, because as far as I understood Hotch's brother sold the wine to the shopowner, but when he flead the scene and they later asked the shopowner about it he said that a man just came in and bought the last ones. So probably Sean bought them back. And I certainly don't believe the team would wait till the last bottles make some victims. And I certainly don't believe they would be stupid enough to drink the same wine that was spiked. Also I'd like to think they drink some expensive wine and not the wine that is served in clubs. But maybe I'm wrongmoreless

Section Chief Erin Strauss

Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)

Rossi mentions the Tylenol cyanide mass poisoning of 1986. He dates the event in error. It actually occurred in September of 1982, in Chicago. He seems to have mixed up the case with a similar one in 1986 where a woman murdered her husband and a teenaged girl with cyanide hidden in Excedrin in Auburn, Washington.

ALLUSIONS (2)

Garcia: I have seen the wizard, and he granted my wish.Penelope references L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Dorothy, desperate to return home to Kansas, follows the Good Witch of the North's advice to request passage home from the Wizard in the Emerald City.

Garcia: Guys, I have found something stranger than a time-traveling police box.Penelope references the British show Doctor Who, in which the doctor travels through space and time in a time machine disguised as a police box.

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